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With the start of the New Year and the new recreational cannabis law in California, Richard and Joe welcome two guests with an insight into the medicinal use of cannabis, Joe Moreno, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

The politics of marijuana remain hazy, but the industry is backed by prominent members of the scientific community including their first guest, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the multiple Emmy® award-winning chief medical correspondent for CNN. Dr. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news for all of CNN’s shows domestically and internationally and contributes to CNN.com. His medical training and public health policy experience distinguish his reporting from war zones and natural disasters, as well as on a range of medical and scientific topics. In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and regularly performs surgery at Emory University and Grady hospitals. He holds memberships in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as a diplomat of the American Board of Neurosurgery and a certified medical investigator.

“As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from marijuana overdose.”

Joe Moreno is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a former U.S. Marine officer, a former Apple software engineer for nine years, and is now the Chief Technical Officer of It’s Borrowed where he leads a team that develops new features of a mobile rental marketplace app. Joe is also one of the co-organizers and mentors of the San Diego’s Inventors and Kickstarter Meetup, which focuses on pre-campaign marketing through social media.

As a former Marine Corps officer and Apple engineer Joe Moreno was turned off by stereotypical stoner culture. Even after being diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and completing six months of chemotherapy, Moreno never considered cannabis a viable treatment option due to the negative stigma attached to it. It was education that led Moreno to think differently, and three years ago he gave cannabis a try. To help bring professionalism and foster growth of careers in California’s cannabis industry, Moreno founded the San Diego Cannabis Business Group Meetup, and has found a community of people from all backgrounds who have found benefit from the plant.

In “Highly Productive”, a MERRY JANE original series, Joe profiles people who are doing great in their careers, but still enjoy or medically partake in cannabis.